Google Chrome Beats Firefox To Own The Tech Set

Firefox is no longer the most popular browser for tech savvy people, according to data from Gabe Rivera, founder of Techmeme.

Rivera passed along this chart which shows the share of web browser usage of people coming to his popular tech news site.

As you can see, Google's Chrome is now the most popular. Rivera says Chrome became the top browser in September.

If Techmeme's readership proves to be a leading indicator for broader browsing tendencies, this could be the first sign that Firefox's run is over.

iPhone 4 Breaks 68% More Often Than iPhone 3GS

Apple's iPhone 4 is more fragile than its predecessor, according to data from SquareTrade, a company that provides warranties. It released the chart below based on the response of 20,000 people with warranties on their iPhones.

As you can see, reported accidents for the iPhone are up 68% compared to the iPhone 3GS. SquareTrade also reports that broken screens constitute 82% of the accident claims. (That number is an 82% increase from the broken screens reported for iPhone 3GS.)

The silver lining here for Apple: Only 4% of iPhone owners are claiming broken screens. That means 96% aren't. Also, Square Trade says the iPhone compared favourably to other smartphones when it did a similar study in 2008.

Of course, Apple sells millions of iPhones each quarter. If this trend holds, it means hundreds of thousands of iPhone 4s will have broken screens.

Verizon's Android Users Are Bigger Data Hogs Than iPhone Users

Despite having a reputation as big mobile data hogs, iPhone users actually consume less data on average than Android users according to a study from Validas, a company that analyses wireless bills for consumers.

In the chart below you can see the average data usage for an iPhone user compared to smartphone owners on other carriers. Ed Finegold, the Chief Analytics Officer for Validas tells us the Verizon data is largely based on Android users. Sprint and T-Mobile are more of a mix of smartphone OSes, says Finegold.

Finegold thinks Verizon Android users are consuming more mobile data because in the first half of 2010 those people were early adopters to the platform. As such, early adopters tend to use more services and more data. AT&T's iPhone users on the other hand are a more mature bunch. The new iPhone customers are aren't using all the services.

Teens Text 3,339 Times Per Month!

Nielsen reports teens sent or received 3,339 texts per month on average for the second quarter of 2010. Put another way, that's six texts on average for every waking hour.

Nielsen says teenage girls are even more active, sending 4,050 texts per month. The number of texts sent by teens in 2010 was up 8% from the year prior.

See? Google's Still A One-Trick Pony

Don't be fooled by all the excitement about how Google is 'no longer a one-trick pony,' as several analysts exulted today. The company's search business is robustly healthy, but the company is still highly dependent on it.

In fact, in terms of profit (as opposed to revenue), the company is still very much a one trick pony.

Google says its mobile, display, YouTube, and other non-text-ad businesses now contribute ~$3.5 billion of revenue, more than 10% of Google's overall gross revenue. That's encouraging. But it's gross revenue, not net revenue, and on a profit basis the contribution is even smaller.

Specifically, we estimate that Google's non-search businesses contribute only about 5% of Google's profits. The other 95% comes from search ads.

So what's the actual good news for Google bulls? The search business is still the best media business in history. And it's growing rapidly again.

CHARTS OF THE LAST WEEK: Android Keeps Growing -- Now The Best Selling OS For New Phone Buyers

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